Design, Analysis and Structural Test of Telecommunication Satellite Based on ECSS Standard

The structure of a satellite, during its operational life, should be tolerated all applied mechanical loads which the most important of them is vibration loads during the launch. To verification of design process, finite element analysis and vibration tests should be performed on the structure of satellite according to the ECSS standard. In this paper, while simultaneously examining the optimal design process for a satellite structure with an increase in the strength to mass ratio, the required finite element analyzes along with the mechanical tests of the structure of a telecommunication satellite, including random vibrations, sinusoidal vibrations, shock and quasi-static, are fully presented. The results showed that by employing the cross section design for the satellite structure, the natural frequency of the satellite in the longitudinal direction have increased appreciably, which increases the strength of the satellite in the longitudinal direction. The experimental results proved that the designed structure meets the frequency requirements of the launcher while tolerate the mechanical loads during launch. Also, the experimental results were in good agreement with the numerical results, including the modal analysis, random and sine vibration. Therefore, design processes of the satellite structure were verified by experimental tests.